Catching Up

Last weekend the boys and girls both had a day out. The boys went to Medina, NY for A Day Out With Thomas. The girls went to the Rosamond Gifford Zoo. Being one of the girls I can report on all of our adventures. We started out with a picnic under the trees with a wonderful breeze and sunshine, then we headed through the zoo to see the outdoor animals first. Both b-girl and her cousin liked the outdoor animals, but they were captivated by the penguins.
The girls stopped and pressed close to the glass following the trail of bubbles as the penguins dove into the water and finally the girls were persuaded to take a break and complete the activity at the first bird migration table. We continued outdoors and I was thrilled that almost all of the animals at the zoo were visible, but the promised clouds had moved in and a few raindrops became a downpour. Our group made a break for the gazebo and arrived a bit wet, and finally made a dash for the main building as the rain and wind continued to show no signs of letting up. The rest of the bird migration tables fascinated the girls and I was impressed at how well the information and activities were designed to capture the interest of a large age range. The girls measured their wing span, identified bird feathers, and found out what difficulties they encountered while migrating. I found it interesting to see what animals caught the attention of the girls, their favorites included the sea horses, mole rats, monkeys, sand cats, and the tortoise doing very speedy laps around his track.

B-girl fell asleep against Grandma's shoulder on our way out of the zoo and we walked under cloudy skies with no rain all the way to the car. We arrived at the car only to be soaked by a rain storm while trying to buckle the kids in, but we still finished off our day with some shopping. A-kid was very excited about the boys' trip and chatted about Thomas and the museum's train layout. The rest of the weekend was busy and fun. We went to get B-girl's 3 yr pictures taken and then spent time with Grandma and Grandpa.

This past week has been a blur of yard work, up until Friday when I wrecked my back edging the drive. Ron, Ron's Dad, and the kids have continued on without me, while I am trying to recover before Ron returns to work on Tuesday. I am already feeling a bit better, though it is hard to keep myself from picking up the kids or bending down to pick things up for them. I keep telling myself that this is good for Ron and the kids, but in all honesty it is no fun sitting on the sidelines. We played memory match tonight and B-girl won the second round ( somewhat assisted by A-kid, but he helps everyone equally.... he definitely has not developed much of an overly competitive spirit ) and I found it wonderful to watch the kids enjoy flipping over the memory squares with photos of family members on them. C-cat sends everyone little lip smacky kisses and I hope that the weekend is a wonderful one and much enjoyed by all. =)

Mowing Lawn

There was something special today about mowing the lawn. It might sound crazy, but I just had a great time and was gripped by the fact that this is our front lawn. I kept looking up through the baby leaves on the trees as I passed underneath ( don't worry it was a push mower and I was watching where I was going) and I was just loving the smell of fresh cut grass mixed with the smell of barbecued pork steaks and sausage. I think it might come down to some physical labor resulting in chores actually getting done, the great outdoors, and having my 4yr old boy cheer me on anxiously like I was some kind of hero headed out on a perilous journey holding unknown dangers. A-kid and B-girl were both great helpers yesterday after some early difficulties involving stones and sidewalk chalk. A-kid picked up stones and put them in buckets, rescued worms from the clumps of grass that I had removed edging the walk and placed them in the flower bed, picked up grass and helped put down wood chip mulch. B-girl also helped put grass in the wheel barrow, put down mulch and dumped the stones in a rock pile. C-cat was not thrilled about being left out of the action, but we were able to make it up to her with a nice walk today. Mother's Day was wonderful, though I think my favorite part was watching A-kid walk through Wegmans with both arms wrapped firmly around a yellow chrysanthemum plant. I had wanted to let the kids choose plants for their rooms and A-kid caught me by surprise insisting that he wanted a flowering plant. Tonight C-cat said nighty-night to both B-girl and A-kid and gave them kisses. I am always suprised at how fast they are all growing up.

B-girl is three years old now and such a sweet princess!!! Her b-day party was on Sunday and she tried on all of her dress-up clothes, shoes, crowns, necklaces and looked so cute. We all dressed up for the occasion and A-kid said to me" You look beautiful Mommy, are you and Daddy going to dance to the princess music?". B-girl blew out all of the candles on her birthday cake, though three four year olds might have helped her a bit. The kids loved the cream cheese frosting and the adults gave the gingerbread cake two thumbs up, so the princess castle cake was soon demolished. =) The boys actually were winning all the prizes for the Disney Princess Quiz and we had to banish them to go play trains, LOL, and I am now thinking that we need to sign A-kid up to be a contestent on Jeopardy. It was cute to watch the kids try to figure out the rules for musical chairs ( bean bag chairs), the older kids kept trying to weave in and out through the chairs and B-girl just found the chair she liked and sat down while the music was still playing. =) The kids spent the day today playing with all the new birthday stuff and napping!! I am excited about the napping and the fact that we only went through a quarter tissue box instead of two today, it seems like the kids are getting better. Misty Dog is looking better too. I am giving Misty her last pill tonight, but I am going to keep the cone on her a bit longer. Poor Aria Cat was picked up by A-kid today and her hind quarters were hanging down, feet not quite reaching the floor, and she looked miserable. A-kid put Aria down and pet her very nicely, but it seems that he is into the stage of picking everyone up. C-cat is coming into her own now, she got the Thomas storybook in her hands during storytime the other night and would not let it go. C-cat kept her tush firmly planted in one spot and used her feet to twirl herself around and keep the book out of A-kid's hands. A-kid was upset about the book , but it was so funny that I was biting back giggles. We ended up reading another Thomas book instead and bed time was saved. Good night all, I hope to post pictures soon....